50 Essentiall Epic Fantasies

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

Jack Vance doesn't make any of their lists?

It's quite possible none of them have read Vance. Rule three seemed to exclude a lot of works people "expected" to see according to the various blog comments.

[jgaiser]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

It's quite possible none of them have read Vance. Rule three seemed to exclude a lot of works people "expected" to see according to the various blog comments.

Yep... The isn't really the One True™ 50 Essential Epic Fantasies. Just the top 50 of what they have read. Given that limitation, I still say it's a pretty good list. It's add a couple authors I didn't even know about.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by jgaiser

Yep... The isn't really the One True™ 50 Essential Epic Fantasies. Just the top 50 of what they have read. Given that limitation, I still say it's a pretty good list. It's add a couple authors I didn't even know about.

Yes indeedy do.
It's fun for me to see what the "voices of the genre blog scene" see as essential. Especially as those voices get younger and younger. I've come to appreciate what both Jared (and Anne) and Justin have to say about books and authors in general.

And finalists for the prestigious Kitschie awards are making their way onto my TBR list more and more frequently.

[HomeInMyShoes]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Yes indeedy do.
It's fun for me to see what the "voices of the genre blog scene" see as essential. Especially as those voices get younger and younger. I've come to appreciate what both Jared (and Anne) and Justin have to say about books and authors in general.

On the Internet, no one knows you're twelve years old.

I've read a few of the options, but not many. I've managed to free myself from the fantasy section at the bookstore. I browse, but I don't buy and I think the two year hiatus from most things long and epic has been good. I am piling up things to potentially read, but I don't think I'll lose myself in years of books written by people named Terry as much.

[Dazrin]

Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes

\ I don't think I'll lose myself in years of books written by people named Terry as much.

It does seem like that name is a little too common in the fantasy genre.

[Fluribus]

Mr. Cloth is phenomenal.

[GreenMonkey]

Coming up with 50 would be tough but I could probably do it. I'm not too well caught up on modern fantasy series but I've been reading some lately.

I'll be perusing the lists again later and adding some stuff to my wishlists.

[WillAdams]

The lists need a rule #5: No Extruded Fantasy Product (EFP), and a Rule #6, written since Lindsay's _A Voyage to Arcturus_ to cut out the listing of folkore works.

I'd also change Rule #3 to be ``list only one milieu's worth of books for a given author'', so that for Tolkien, one would list The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales and The Children of Hurin (and completionists may go on to read all the volumes of The Complete History of Middle Earth), and rather than allow Michael Moorcock to slip in everything w/ his ``Eternal Champion Multiverse'' we'd limit him to just The tales of Elric of Melniboné w/a note that people may go on to read the balance of the Eternal Champion books.

- Jack Vance's Lyonesse Trilogy or his Dying Earth books, needs to be on any such list.
- ditto for Andre Norton's Witchworld
- for the Arthurian representation, I'd've picked Steinbeck's _The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights_

There are a few other books which I'm surprised to not see on any of the lists.

Books I was glad to see listed:

- Poul Anderson's The Broken Sword
- Dunsany's The King of Elfland's Daughter
- Lovecraft's Dream of Unknown Kaddath
- Susan Cooper's Dark is Rising
- LeGuin's Earthsea Trilogy
- Robin McKinley's The Hero and the Crown

Mildly surprised that Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series made it on one list --- this series started off quite strongly, but then really lost it for me when the god of War book didn't live up to the promise of Ares in the preceding volume.

[jgaiser]

Sigh... And rule 3 says they can only list books they've actually read.

We can all put together our favorite lists. It's been done here time and again and I can usually find something that's been missed from my favorites.

[treadlightly]

Originally Posted by jgaiser

Sigh... And rule 3 says they can only list books they've actually read.

We can all put together our favorite lists. It's been done here time and again and I can usually find something that's been missed from my favorites.

I'd love to have a "MR Top 50 Epic Fantasies List" It would be a complicated poll to set up. In fact I'd like one for every genre.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by treadlightly

I'd love to have a "MR Top 50 Epic Fantasies List" It would be a complicated poll to set up. In fact I'd like one for every genre.

And I'd peruse them all ... without a single word about which of my personal favorites were heinously overlooked because of rules.

[jgaiser]

Originally Posted by treadlightly

I'd love to have a "MR Top 50 Epic Fantasies List" It would be a complicated poll to set up. In fact I'd like one for every genre.

As I said, it's been done a number of times:

Here is a good start.

[treadlightly]

Originally Posted by jgaiser

As I said, it's been done a number of times:

But those are individual's lists. I would like one list of fantasies voted on by MR users. I suppose you could tally up each person's list, but that doesn't include those who have never recommended anything. I think one communal list for fantasy was attempted once, but I can't find the thread at the moment.

We could use Goodreads' listopia, but that would exclude anyone who wasn't a GR user.

[jgaiser]

Originally Posted by treadlightly

But those are individual's lists. I would like one list of fantasies voted on by MR users.

Good Luck.. That would be one huge poll. And you'd still get complaints.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by jgaiser

And you'd still get complaints.

"Rabble, rabble, rabble."